Variation orders are an on-going phenomenon in construction and industry projects worldwide, particularly in the province of Sulaimani, where the project's damage from cost and schedule overrun because of variation orders. However, the effect on project costs and time overrun of variation order has yet to be identified. This study evaluates the impact of variation orders on the cost and time off in the Sulaimani governorate. Two hundred twenty-eight projects from various construction sectors built between 2007-2012 were adopted to calculate the contract cost and schedule overruns due to variation orders. Data analysis was applied in the study were descriptive statistics. One-way ANOVA was also applied to determine whether the overrun of project cost and schedule significantly varied depending on project type, size, duration, location, and awarded years. The findings indicated that cost overruns are very common due to variation orders. 95.6% of the projects were studied being impacted, and overrun in project cost are also huge, with 16%. Time also overruns more common than cost overruns due to the variation orders. 98.7% of the projects were studied in Sulaimani were affected by time overrun with an average of 46.3% of initial duration observed. Findings also indicated that two out of five parameters measured in the analysis had a significant correlation with project cost overruns. Three out of five considered variables correlated with construction time overruns.
Concrete filled steel tube (CFST) columns are being popular in civil engineering due to their superior structural characteristics. This paper investigates enhancement in axial behavior of CFST columns by adding steel fibers to plain concrete that infill steel tubes. Four specimens were prepared: two square columns (100*100 mm) and two circular columns (100 mm in diameter). All columns were 60 cm in length. Plain concrete mix and concrete reinforced with steel fibers were used to infill steel tube columns. Ultimate axial load capacity, ductility and failure mode are discussed in this study. The results showed that the ultimate axial load capacity of CFST columns reinforced with steel fibers increased by 28% and 20 % for circular and square c
... Show MoreInflammatory bowel disease includes both Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis, is a chronic, progressive relapsing disease of gastrointestinal tract that require long-term treatment or maintenance therapy. Taking patient’s beliefs about the prescribed medication in consideration had been shown to be an important factor that affects compliance of the patient in whom having positive beliefs is a prerequisite for better compliance. The aim of the current study was to investigate and assess beliefs about medicines among a sample of Iraqi patients with inflammatory bowel disease and to determine possible association between these beliefs and some patient-specific factors.
This study is a cross-sectional study carried out o
... Show MoreLevan is an exopolysaccharide produced by various microorganisms and has a variety of applications. In this research, the aim was to demonstrate the biological activity of levan which produced from B. phenoliresistens KX139300. These were done via study the antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, anticancer and antileishmanial activities in vitro. The antioxidant levan was shown 80.9% activity at 1250 µg/mL concentration. The efficient anti-inflammatory activity of 88% protein inhibition was noticed with levan concentration at 35 µg/mL. The cytotoxic activity of levan at 2500 µg/mL concentration showed a maximum cytotoxic effect on L20B cell line and promastigotes of Leishmani tropica. Levan has dose-dependent anticancer and antileishman
... Show MoreIn this study, the modified Rayleigh-Ritz method and Fourier series are used to determine the thermal buckling behavior of laminated composite thin plates with a general elastic boundary condition applied to in-plane uniform temperature distribution depending upon classical laminated plate theory(CLPT). A generalized procedure solution is developed for the Rayleigh-Ritz method combined with the synthetic spring technique. The transverse displacement of the orthotropic rectangular plates is not a different term as a new shape expansion of trigonometric series. In this solution approach, the plate transverse deflection and rotation due to bending are developed into principle Fourier series with a sufficient smoothness auxi
... Show MoreThis study investigates the influence of asymmetric involute teeth profiles for helical gears on the bending stress. Theoretically, bending stress has been estimated in spur involute gears which have symmetric teeth profile by based on the Lewis, 1892 equation. Later, this equation is developed by, Abdullah, 2012. to determine the effect of an asymmetric tooth profile for the spur gear on the bending stress. And then these equations are applied with stress concentration factor once for symmetric and once other for asymmetric teeth profile. In this paper, the bending stresses for various types of helical gear with various types of asymmetric teeth profile are calculated numerically for defined the stress concentration fac
... Show MoreExtension of bandwidth for high reflectance zone for the spectral region (8-14pm) was studied adapting the concept of contiguous and overlapping high reflectance stacks. Computations was carried out using the modified characteristic matrix theory restricted to near-normal incidence of light on dielectric , homogenous and isotropic symmetrical stack. Certain precautions must be taken in the choice of stacks to avoid deep —reflectance minima from developing within the extended high reflectance region. Results illustrate that the techniques of extending the high reflectance regions are applicable not only to mirrors , but also to short-and long-edge filter and to narrow band pass filters.
Coffee bean contains bioactive compounds including caffeine and chlorogenic acid (CGA) that have a stimulant effect and are used for combating fatigue and drowsiness, and enhancing alertness. However, when the coffee bean was processed in the form of green coffee bean (GCB) extract, it has an unpleasant flavour and limitations instability, activity, and bioavailability. This study aimed to produce microcapsules of the GCB (Coffea canephora) ethanolic extract containing considerable amounts of the bioactive compounds for nutraceutical supplements. The GCB ethanolic extract was microencapsulated by spray drying using a whey protein concentrate (WPC) biopolimer. The particle size (PSA), morphology (SEM), and physicochemical charact
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